Creation of XSL-FO Template

Movtivation

I need to generate PDF documents based on XML model and XSLT style sheet. The Apach FOP framework is a good solution, but the XSL-FO the framework uses is hard to be prepared.

Therefore I created this libary to help me quickly create a temporary XSL-FO template which meets 60% of the requirements. Then I edited it to meet 100% requirements. Finally I used Apahe FOP framework to generate PDF files.

Due to my poor technology, this library is not a full solution. It just saves the time to initialize templates, you need the XSLT/XSL-FO knowledge to edit them to meet all your requirements.

The libary can export XSL-FO of Microsot Word. Maybe you can try to use Microsot Word to design documents and use this libary output XSL-FO result.

Simple Tutorial

The tutorial will create the document below.

Choose content builders.

Form
Table
PageNumber
... (depending on the requirements)

Design XSL-FO template and output XML result.
Integrated with XSLT.
Ouput the PDF file.

1. Choose Content Builders

Form Builder

Thinking of Layout

row \ col	0		1
row: 0	Name	order/name	WorkGroup	order/workGroup
1	Description	order/description	QA Group	order/qaGroup
2	Begin Time	order/runBeginTime	MA Type	freqName
3	End Time	order/runEndTime

The Java Code

FormBuilder from = new FormBuilder(2)
    .addInfo("Name", 0, 0, "order/name")
    .addInfo("Description", 1, 0, "order/description")
    .addInfo("Begin Time", 2, 0, "order/runBeginTime")
    .addInfo("End Time", 3, 0, "order/runEndTime")
    .addInfo("Work Group", 0, 1, "order/workGroup")
    .addInfo("QA Group", 1, 1, "order/qaGroup")
    .addInfo("MA Type", 2, 1, "order/freqName");

Table Builder

Thinking of Layout

Seq No Item Name Result Remark

seqNo itemName maResult maRemark

The Java Code

TableBuilder table = new TableBuilder(4)
    .createHeaders(new String[] { "Seq No", "Item Name", "Result", "Remark" })
    .createRowTemplate(new String[] {
        "seqNo",
        "itemName",
        "maResult",
        "maRemark"
    });

PageNumber Builder

Thinking of Layout

left center right

Page Number

The Java Code

PageNumberBuilder pn = new PageNumberBuilder()

2. Design XSL-FO template

The Java Code

// 1. carete a XML builder (fo:root)
FoXML xml = new FoXML();

// 2. create a layout (fo:simple-page-master)
xml.createLayout("MA_ORDER", Paper.A4)
    .enableHeader()
    .enableFooter();

// 3. create a page (fo:page-sequence)
FoPage page = xml.addPage("MA_ORDER");

// 4. 'form' as part of the body of the page (fo:flow)
form.applyToBody(page);
// 5. 'table' as part of the body of the page (fo:flow)
table.applyToBody(page);
// 6. 'pageNumber' at the footer of the page (fo:static-content)
pn.applyToFooter(page);

// 7. generate the XSL-FO content
String result = xml.build();

Save XSL-FO Content

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
    <fo:layout-master-set>
        <fo:simple-page-master master-name="MA_ORDER_REPORT" page-height="29.7cm" page-width="21.0cm" margin="2cm">
            <fo:region-body region-name="region-body" margin-top="1cm" margin-bottom="1cm"/>
            <fo:region-before region-name="region-header"/>
            <fo:region-after region-name="region-footer"/>
        </fo:simple-page-master>
    </fo:layout-master-set>
    <fo:page-sequence master-reference="MA_ORDER_REPORT" font-family="Arial,sans-serif,SimHei">
        <fo:static-content flow-name="region-header">
            <fo:table margin-bottom="1cm">
                <fo:table-column column-width="33%"/>
                <fo:table-column column-width="33%"/>
                <fo:table-column column-width="33%"/>
                <fo:table-body>
                    <fo:table-row>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block margin-right="0.1mm"><xsl:value-of select="order/id" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block margin-right="0.1mm">MA Order</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block margin-right="0.1mm"><xsl:value-of select="order/runBeginTime" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                    </fo:table-row>
                </fo:table-body>
            </fo:table>
        </fo:static-content>
        <fo:static-content flow-name="region-footer">
            <fo:table margin-bottom="1cm">
                <fo:table-column column-width="40%"/>
                <fo:table-column column-width="20%"/>
                <fo:table-column column-width="40%"/>
                <fo:table-body>
                    <fo:table-row>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block/>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block text-align="center">
                                <fo:page-number/>
                            </fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block text-align="right"/>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                    </fo:table-row>
                </fo:table-body>
            </fo:table>
        </fo:static-content>
        <fo:flow flow-name="region-body">
            <fo:table margin-bottom="1cm">
                <fo:table-column column-width="20%"/>
                <fo:table-column column-width="30%"/>
                <fo:table-column column-width="20%"/>
                <fo:table-column column-width="30%"/>
                <fo:table-body>
                    <fo:table-row>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block font-weight="bold" text-align="right" margin-right="0.1mm">Name</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="order/name" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block font-weight="bold" text-align="right" margin-right="0.1mm">Work Group</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="order/workGroup" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                    </fo:table-row>
                    <fo:table-row>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block font-weight="bold" text-align="right" margin-right="0.1mm">Description</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="order/description" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block font-weight="bold" text-align="right" margin-right="0.1mm">QA Group</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="order/qaGroup" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                    </fo:table-row>
                    <fo:table-row>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block font-weight="bold" text-align="right" margin-right="0.1mm">Begin Time</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="order/runBeginTime" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block font-weight="bold" text-align="right" margin-right="0.1mm">Type</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="order/freqName" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                    </fo:table-row>
                    <fo:table-row>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block font-weight="bold" text-align="right" margin-right="0.1mm">End Time</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="order/runEndTime" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell/>
                        <fo:table-cell/>
                    </fo:table-row>
                </fo:table-body>
            </fo:table>
            <fo:table table-layout="auto" border="solid 0.3mm black" margin="0.1mm">
                <fo:table-column column-width="25%" border="solid 0.1mm black"/>
                <fo:table-column column-width="25%" border="solid 0.1mm black"/>
                <fo:table-column column-width="25%" border="solid 0.1mm black"/>
                <fo:table-column column-width="25%" border="solid 0.1mm black"/>
                <fo:table-header>
                    <fo:table-row border="solid 0.1mm black" background-color="#eeeeee">
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block font-weight="bold" text-align="center">Seq No</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block font-weight="bold" text-align="center">Item Name</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block font-weight="bold" text-align="center">Result</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block font-weight="bold" text-align="center">Remark</fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                    </fo:table-row>
                </fo:table-header>
                <fo:table-body>
                    <fo:table-row border="solid 0.1mm black">
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="seqNo" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="itemName" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="maResult" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                        <fo:table-cell>
                            <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="maRemark" /></fo:block>
                        </fo:table-cell>
                    </fo:table-row>
                </fo:table-body>
            </fo:table>
        </fo:flow>
    </fo:page-sequence>
</fo:root>

3. Integrated with XSLT

Commonly used tags of XSLT are xsl:for-each and value-of.

Create a new XSLT file and manually add XSL-FO created above.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet
    version="1.0"
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
    <xsl:template match="/">
      <!-- XSL-FO template here -->
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Add xsl:for-each to bind data for fo:table-row.

<xsl:for-each select="order/items/item">
    <fo:table-row>
      <!-- fo:table-cell -->
    </fo:table-row>
</xsl:for-each>

Add value-of to bind data in right block

<fo:block>
    <xsl:value-of select="order/id" />
</fo:block>

Modify more to meet the requirements ...

4. Output the PDF file

Prepare XML data

<order>
    <id>MA-00419-191023-01</id>
    <name>MA-00419</name>
    <dscription>Line A</dscription>
    <runBeginTime>2019-10-23 08:00</runBeginTime>
    <runEndTime>2019-10-23 18:00</runEndTime>
    <workGroup>Line A WG009</workGroup>
    <qaGroup>QA 002</qaGroup>
    <freqName>Monthly</freqName>
    <items>
        <item>
            <seqNo>10</seqNo>
            <itemName>Item A</itemName>
            <maResult>OK</maResult>
            <maRemark></maRemark>
        </item>
        <item>
            <seqNo>20</seqNo>
            <itemName>Item B</itemName>
            <maResult>NG</maResult>
            <maRemark>Broken</maRemark>
        </item>
        <item>
            <seqNo>30</seqNo>
            <itemName>Item C</itemName>
            <maResult>OK</maResult>
            <maRemark></maRemark>
        </item>
        <item>
            <seqNo>40</seqNo>
            <itemName>Item D</itemName>
            <maResult>OK</maResult>
            <maRemark></maRemark>
        </item>
    </items>
</order>

The Java Code

PdfFile.newInstance().save(
        new File("output.pdf"),
        new File("data.xml"),
        new File("data.xslt"));

Public References

XSL-FO Tutorial of W3Schools - knowledge based.
Apche FOP - framework used to output PDF files.
XSF-FO XML Schema - XSF-FO schema description.
docx4j - Microsoft Word handler.
docx4j-export-FO - Microsoft Word XSL-FO exporter.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 10 Commits
conf		conf
images		images
schema		schema
src		src
test		test
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md
pom.xml		pom.xml

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Creation of XSL-FO Template

Movtivation

Simple Tutorial

1. Choose Content Builders

Form Builder

Table Builder

PageNumber Builder

2. Design XSL-FO template

3. Integrated with XSLT

4. Output the PDF file

Public References

About

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uia4j/uia-fop

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Repository files navigation

Creation of XSL-FO Template

Movtivation

Simple Tutorial

1. Choose Content Builders

Form Builder

Table Builder

PageNumber Builder

2. Design XSL-FO template

3. Integrated with XSLT

4. Output the PDF file

Public References

About

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